Name: Fig Pudding
Ingredients: 1 lb figs; 4 oz flour; 4 oz brown sugar; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1 egg; 4 oz suet; 4 oz bread crumbs; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; little milk

Why it works: Fig and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 614 recipes. Both carry cinnamyl acetate, which smells sweet aromatic, cinnamon. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Beat the egg and mix it with a little milk.
Combine the egg mixture with the other ingredients and mix well.

Steam

Pour the mixture into a buttered basin.
Steam for two and a half hours.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Fig + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together614 recipes

Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,026 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Figs: Provide the main fruit flavour and moist, sticky body to the pudding.
Flour: Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavour.
Baking powder: Releases gas during cooking, helping the pudding rise and stay light.
Egg: Binds the ingredients and helps set the pudding's texture.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, bread, cinnamon, milk):

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figthe original
Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, bread, cinnamon, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.